Moscow bans gay pride for 100 years

Moscow has refused to allow LGBT activists to hold pride parades in the Russian capital for the next century.

The Tverskoy district court had previously banned public events that qualified as gay parades from March 2012 to May 2112.

In defiance, leading gay activist Nikolay Alekseev claimed to have found a loophole in Russian legislation and submitted requests for gay pride parades for the next 100 years to the Moscow Mayor’s office.

But the Moscow city court has now upheld the refusal of Alekseev's requests.

It's a decision which he claims was not unexpected and he plans to first appeal to the high courts in Russia and, failing that, he will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

'We wanted to see the reaction so we could show the European Court of Human Rights that it’s not just past events which are banned illegally but also the future events,' he told Gay Star News.

He added: 'It was a way for us to show the absurdity of the system for gaining permission for public events.'

Gay rights group Stonewall has condemned the ban.

‘It’s a matter of grave concern that Moscow’s municipal government has again marginalized the city’s gay community,' said Stonewall international officer Jasmine O’Connor.

'It’s another sign of the dire situation for Russia’s 8.5 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people, whose human rights are routinely abused by the government and police.

'We’ll continue to press the British government to do all it can to confront homophobic human rights abuses worldwide.’